


Ashore

by betademon



Category: Homestuck
Genre: F/F, and maybe some trauma which is why this is rated t probably for violence, for now, for now expect conversations about the ocean/water, ill add warnings if needed when i know theyll be showing up, its an au if you didnt know kanaya is a mermaid, jade appears for sec but if i make her have more of a part then ill add an official tag for her
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-11
Updated: 2018-07-18
Packaged: 2019-02-13 08:05:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 16,281
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12979719
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/betademon/pseuds/betademon
Summary: Sometimes you just gotta write the fluffy mermaid fic that you were wishing for yourself, so here it is just in case someone else wished for it too.





	1. Chapter 1

As you step out into the brisk morning your eye lock onto the darkening clouds in the distance. The sky is still dim not quite lit up yet from the morning sun,and while this is not the preferred time for you to awaken you have an important meeting you're almost late for. 

A storm appears to be brewing and readying to strike by midday, but you're not going to let that stop you.

Your home was at the edge of the forest that barricaded you from the town where you do business. You’ve earned the title of ‘mysterious and almost terrifying witch whom we fear but still send our children to do business with your when we need a good luck spell’ or at least that’s what this one bright eyed child told you one day. The town does not often see you in public and when they do you must be very unrecognizable since no one has tried to speak to you or threaten to burn you at the stake.

The town isn’t important to you as of now. You could care less of the townspeople getting up and setting up their businesses and caring for their livestock. They do not waste their thoughts and you and you the same. What has captivated your interest this fine morning is the coast behind your home. Ever since you’ve moved to this location you’ve been struck by the beautiful blue waves that you swear sometimes takes a fluorescent jade certain mornings when the time is right. The beautiful beige sands complement the waves for a striking scene that has definitely made you feel at peace coming down to it many a night after a restless sleep. The ocean again today, has calmed your heart without prompt and filled you with another emotion; excitement.

You walk at your own pace in clothes that you may regret when the sun rises and the summer heat kicks in. but you don’t mind too much. Right before going down the ridge to the sand you take off your shoes and carry them with you as you sit in the sand and wait. The sand’s chill stings your feet as you dig them into the sand, and you listen to the soft stirring of the waves against the rocks near the shore.

And then you see her.

Well, a bit of her. Breaking the surface of the crystalline water was a head of beautiful dark hair and two piercing green eyes the rest was masked by water and mystery at the moment.

“Well,”you call out,” are you going to come out?”

She angles her head upwards to respond,” would you mind coming out here? it’s cold.”

“I’m not sitting in the water in these shorts but I will sit on one of the rocks.”

“I’ll take it.”

You get up and wade into the water a tad, then proceed to climb up a rock with a nice flat surface to sit on. Only mildly wet and you're thankful for your insistence to dress in all if not mostly black clothing. As you sit down the brownish blob form under the water moves closer towards you and she pops out once more to gauge the distance from the water to the rock before swiftly grabbing the side and heaving her body out of the water. Her brown skin covered with green scales shimmering in the soft morning light. She sits herself close enough to you and rests her beautiful jade mermaid tail into the water. Her sudden advance caused water to splash up along with her.

“Ah! Kanaya please watch where you launch yourself,” you couldn’t save your clothes from getting sprayed with water but you at least hide your face to keep your makeup from getting wet.

“I’m sorry dear, she leans over to gift you a cold wet kiss on your cheek and flashes her monstrous teeth as an apology,” would a hug make you feel better?”

“Do not, “ you glare at the admittedly cute smile that played across her face.

“Hm. Hey Kanaya? Do mermaids actually have two rows of teeth like the townsfolk say?”

“Yes,” she deadpans looking you straight in the eye.

You'd be mad about her being like this if you didn't also do the same thing at every opportunity.

“Rose would you happen to have a towel on you? I would very much like to learn on your shoulder as the sun rises.”

“Yeah sure hold on,” you reach into your bag for an ever present towel you have finally routinely remembered to take with you each time you come out to meet Kanaya.

You take the soft purple towel and toss it over Kanaya's head and proceed to gently dry her hair making sure to watch out for her fins. Kanaya puts her hands over yours and you do this and eventually seizes the towel and ending you terror upon her hair. She brings the towel down to dry her arms before finally putting it around her shoulders and scooches closer to you. You extend your arm to wrap it around her and bring her close enough for her to wrap her, now dry, arms around your waist. Her head rest on your shoulder and your head tilts to meet hers. Her hair was still damp but not enough to do any damage.  Kanaya snuggles as close as she can as the sun finally cracks over the horizon painting the sky light yellows and blues.

“Not the ruin the moment of romantically watching the sunrise with you Rose but, I can't help but notice those clouds in the distance. I don't like it the ocean feels too calm today I don't think this will be a light storm.”

“Hm yes, it may be a few days till we can meet again. Will you be alright out there in the ocean?”

“I have lived through a storm before.”

“Just making sure. Then what exactly is making you worry?”

“Well,” Kanaya pauses for a bit.

You hesitate on replying feeling Kanaya fidget at your side.

“I have an idea,” another pause this time possibly waiting for a response.

“For what exactly?”

“Well,” she starts again, “ what if I stay with you during the storm.”

“My home isn't exactly large so- wait isn't that dangerous? You'll be out of the ocean? What do you want me to do keep you in my bathtub”

“I can survive outside of water Rose. In recent history before we met I had gotten washed up on shore before and had to crawl my way back to the ocean and I was fine. Besides being exhausted at the end of the trip, but also, that would also work just in case too.”

“What? Living in my bathtub? Will you fit?”

“I'll live I don't have to be completely submerged.”

“You sure you want to do this?”

“Are you saying I can?”

“Uh, well, I suppose that was an indirect yes,” you sigh very audibly and Kanaya lifts her head from your shoulder and you return her eye contact, “as long as you promise me you'll be ok from this.”

“Rose look at me right now I’ve been out of the water and I'm fine!”

“Hm alright, but my main other issue is I'm not sure how to get you up the hill to my home. I’m not going to make you crawl. I may be able to carry you but I’m not sure if my back will survive, but I may have another idea if you give me an hour.”

Kanaya grabs you as soon as you agree and pulls you into a slimy, yet endearing, hug and you both remain clasped together while you watch the sun get a decent amount above the horizon. Soon after you bid Kanaya farewell with a kiss and set off to enact your plan. Though, first off, a quick trip home to get a few bargaining chips.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes spite causes you to get the energy to write a longfic. I wrote this in the setting of modern fantasy(like there's technology but also magic is there) but rose still lives in the middle of no where as she should. I have a few chapters written now and I will post one every one or two days, but this isn't finished I'm maybe halfway through as of right now. Also sorry about any sort of weird errors I'm trying to read through my word but I can't read so I'm gonna miss a lot.


	2. Chapter 2

You return down the path less than an hour from when you parted with Kanaya. Turns out you were in luck and your dear merchant friend, Jade, was in town for a few days and you managed to bargain some of your finer materials to borrow her horse and cart. She then told you that you had two hours to do business before she got her dog to sniff you out and take her horse back since she plans on leaving early tomorrow morning. Jade unpacked all her wares from the cart leaving plenty of space for Kanaya. You stop the mare right before the ridge to the sand and you see Kanaya's head pop up from the water again. Kanaya meets you at the shore as you explained to her the plan. 

Next up was getting you girlfriend to the cart. She offered to crawl up there herself, but that seems a little too cruel for you to just stand by. You attempt to drag her along by wrapping your arms under hers and pulling her as you walk backwards to the cart.

You make it, but it was already to much physical effort for your weak body to handle. Thankfully Kanaya easily hoisted herself up to the back of the cart and wrap herself in a blanket back there before you could even catch your breath. You stop briefly to give her a kiss before going up to lead the horse up the incline back home. As you open the door behind you Kanaya flops out of the cart and lands on her back with a gentle ‘ouch.’

“Are you alright back there?”

“Yes, it’s just the ground was closer than I thought it was,” Kanaya calls back, “and rougher than water. This idea works better when I land in water.”

“Okay I have a better idea than dragging you in here,” you crouch down in front of her with your back to her,” reach up and secure your arms around my shoulders.”

Kanaya does so and you were just about to tell her to then wrap her legs around your waist forgetting she has none. Well you've never tried to carry someone like this without being able to secure their legs to your just going to have think of something else since a section of the equation isn’t present. You awkwardly reach your arms back and sort of wrap them around her while securing them both holding onto your wrists. Not your best idea but it only has to work for less than a minute. You straighten your legs and stand up, and while Kanaya wasn’t heavy but you feeble self can barely hold her. Kanaya squirms behind you a bit, probably not used to being carried like this, as you trudge through the door and into the thankfully close bathroom. You attempt to crouch down to drop Kanaya down as softly as you can, but your calculations fell flat as you just did and you remember how terrible you are at assumptions. When you finally take in your embarrassing tumble you realize you're essentially in Kanaya’s lap back against her with her looking down at you.

“If you wanted me to hold you Rose you can just ask.”

“Where’s the fun in just plainly asking when I can constantly surprise you with valiant and clever moves leaving you swooning over my visage,” as you say this Kanaya’s arms instinctively snake around you and you lean back against her.

“Kanaya, I need to go soon.”

“Hm,” she hums into your hair,” sounds like a personal problem. Not sure I can help you there.”

You twist to face her and bring in your face close to hers. The movement being so unprecedented that Kanaya flinched back a tad. Not in an afraid way, but in more of a I didn’t expect my girlfriend to be this close way. After a quick look over to make sure she’s not uncomfortable you secure a warm kiss before slipping out of her arms while you’ve distracted her. With an over dramatic huff she flops on the ground and waits as you fill the tub up. The ocean water is probably cold for the most part, so at least for now you’ll fill a warm bath as a welcome gift. Behind you Kanaya slides herself over to your side peering into the water.

“Are you sure you’ll fit,” you eye her tail.

“I’m flexible,” she replies as she lifts herself up and crashes into the tub splashing water everywhere.

You accepted your fate and didn’t attempt to dodge out of the way. Kanaya settles herself into the tub with only her a part of her head out of the water. In return almost the entirety of her tail was hanging off the edge of the tub and touching the floor tile.

“I’ll take this as a you like it?”

Kanaya nods still with most of her upper half submerged. You sigh as you leave her to change your clothes, and dry yourself off a bit. She’s still in the same position when you return to her. Casually making bubbles in the water and flicking her tail contentedly. 

“Alright I’m gonna go out and get a few things will you be alright for a few hours?”

She nods and you think you hear her mumble, "goodbye.”

You meet Jade to return her horse with minimal damage though as punishment for keeping her waiting you were demanded to go have tea with her. Which you agree, and follow her back to her place for a nice cup of mint tea and a delightful chat. Jade doesn’t ask why the sudden need for use of her merchant cart, and you’re not sure where that’s better than her asking or not. She may be a bright girl with a light laugh, but when she wants to her face can be unreadable even by you who has known her for ages now. You chat about many things anyway, your suspicious actions from this morning settled into the back of Jade’s mind as she moved onward to tell you about her plans for her next trip. The tea was nice and you wonder if where she acquired it, and if perhaps she could grab you some more on her way. You entrust Jade with a list of ingredients you’ve been scouring for and now with Kanaya staying with you you aren’t able to travel with Jade and instead give her a small pouch of gold and ask if she can pick you up them. Along with the list you made sure to include small sketches and descriptions since Jade isn’t too familiar with most of the ingredients you utilize in your potions and spells. She was very much intrigued by the items and even remarked that she may also grab some for herself, muttering about the wanting to know the properties of a few of the herbs.

“Thank you for inviting me Jade I appreciate it, though I’m afraid I must leave to leave I need to pick up a few things,” you get up.

“Oh me too! I’ll come with,” she gets up and you don’t mind,”picking up a few things for dinner? Don’t start a fire this time.”

Alright now you mind.

“Listen that was just one time.”

“Yeah the one time you were tried to cook without magic.”

“Listen,” you pause,” I was trying to be nice and cook for you when you were sick and I didn’t want to use magic in your place.”

“So instead you try and burn down my house.”

“Yes absolutely that is what I was going for. I need to keep up my evil witch brand you know. To keep people on their toes.”

“It seems your evil witch brand involves just yourself and objects around you,” she opens the door for you.

“Yes yes,” you pass her out the door, “ we get it. I am a destructive force of nature that cannot be stopped.”

“Unless your objective is cooking.”

You don’t respond to her for the rest of the walk. You attempted to walk away from her, but her legs are longer than yours so she always managed to keep up no matter what you pace. Mocking you. With Kanaya now living with you you're gonna need almost twice as much food for the both of you. Even so, you not even sure what she eats. Fish? Fish is a safe bet. If Jade notices you stocking up on fish and vegetables she doesn't say anything like before. Every time you look for her you don’t notice her even staring at you she seems a little too wrapped up with her on errands. Maybe you're reading too much into everything? As of now you’re not sure how Jade would react to knowledge of a mermaid and given how the townspeople speak of them, you certain you want to keep Kanaya a secret for some time. You pay for everything and bid Jade farewell and promise to find her again when she returns from her trip, because you know damn well she won't notify you when she gets home so you’ll have to scour her out. Not that you mind, she is one of the few people who enjoys your sullen presence for an extended period of time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have one more chapter prewritten so after the next don't expect an update quite as soon.


	3. Chapter 3

The walk home was uneventful until you reached your door you finally felt the first raindrop from the ominous clouds you saw this morning. The door creaks open as you call for Kanaya in hopes she’s still alive.

“Hello, Rose welcome back,” Kanaya calls.

“Are you alright,” you ask as you start to put away everything,” is the water still okay?”

“Probably,” she flatly replies.

Huh?

You finish up and peer into the door of the bathroom. Only to find Kanaya not sitting in the tub, but instead lying with her back on the ground. Complete with the towel you were using before you left folded neatly under her head like a pillow.

“Hey!” 

Kanaya gives you a small wave as you stare on wondering what to do.

“Are you alright? Do you need help?”

“I appear to be fine. I wanted to see how long I could stay out of the water without it becoming uncomfortable. It seems, at least now, the only thing stopping mermaid from being on land too long is our absence of legs. “

“Ah, how nice,” was all you could say.

“Honestly the absence of legs doesn’t completely stop me too since one time I was washed ashore very far away from the sea and it did take awhile to get back but I didn’t manage to crawl back and honestly by now I think I’m pretty good at it!”

“If you’re sure you’re going to be fine then I’m okay with, well, whatever it is you’re doing. Um,” you look around, “ do you wanna stay in here still? I can carry you to my couch. That might be a bit more comfortable to lay on.”

“Oh yes please that sounds nice it is very cold on this tile.”

You carry her on your back similar to how you carried her to the tub earlier. After letting her drop down onto the couch cushions, you immediately go to you room and look for an extra quilt. One hid quietly under a layer of garbage in the old trunk at the foot of your bed. Which you grab and take it to Kanaya, flinging it on her first then taking it and gently wrapping it around her. She graciously accepts the blanket and curls up with a couch pillow, as much as a mermaid can, and mutters a low 'thank you.’ You kiss her forehead and then carry on to prepare the cooking spells for dinner. Which come in steps. At least it's the way you figured out how to get dinner don't without severely damaging your home. It's easy to think about each spell as a piece to the puzzle of food preparation. One spell to chop vegetables, one to boil water, one to prepare meat, etc. Not exactly the most innovative use of magic like you mentioned, but you’ll be damned if you take the time to redo the whole process. You oversee for just a while, just in case. It would be even more unfortunate if a house fire happened at this moment.

Once everything seems to be in order you look to retire with your aquatic girlfriend resting on the couch where you left her. As you lean over her, her eyes flutter open and she pulls her arms out of the blanket.

“Morning,” you tell her.

“Wait, “ she gives you a wide eyed look,” really?”

“No, no, I’m joking. Do you think there’s space for me?”

Kanaya flicks her tails and retracts back under her quilt, “perhaps.”

“Am I allowed to occupy said space?”

“Per...haps,” she flicks her tail, “I’ll allow it.”

You bow a bit, “thank you Your Grace.”

Behind Kanaya lies a sliver of space and you fumble your way into it. Gracefully, of course. Though, your arm getting awkwardly stuck in between the two of you felt like an inevitable fate. 

“Rose do you need help back there,” Kanaya looks behind her as much as a mermaid swaddled in blankets with a human half-laying on her can.

“Fear not Kanaya, I have a process,” you wiggle your arm free and slip in under Kanaya so now you're hugging her,” though, it seems me half-laying on you cannot be helped.”

Kanaya giggles, “no it is quite alright but how are you going to get up? Weren’t you making dinner?”

“We’ll cross that bridge when it catches on fire. Also if you do happening to smell fire and I’m still behind you knocked out and snoring please do me a ‘solid’ and elbow me awake thanks,” you kiss her neck and situate yourself for the final time as close to her as you can.

“Ah yes,” you say,” before a listless slumber envelopes my mind. Mermaids eat fish right?”

“Absolutely not, we survive by filtering water through our gills and extract the minerals from-Rose I feel you tensing up back there I’m kidding. It’s really one of the few things that’s available anywhere in the ocean so of course I do. I have in fact gotten food from passing ships that have wrecked in storms albeit soggy and probably not the preferred way of eating it. Though wrecks are hard to come by and I don’t really wish for humans to drown even if it’s an unfortunate part of sea travel I mostly like to hang out in caves, but only to sleep since not much wildlife that I can catch likes to join me in there. They’re very pretty though sometime I want to take you to one. I have tried some-.”

“Kanaya, you're rambling again.”

“I suppose I am, but do you have something to contribute to the conversation.”

“Yes my winning personality,” you mumble into her soft hair.

“Thank you Rose always able to give insight on any notice,” she pauses and lifts her head up.

“No come back don't leave,” you groan.

“Rose you fool, shush, I can't go anywhere, even if I wanted to. Listen. It's raining.”

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. I think it's just instinct to be on edge. I'm so used to being, well, outside when storms come through. They can get nasty and we swim for miles to elude them. I have taken a liking to hide in the caves I love so much. They’re very serene.”

“You can always hide in my arms anytime you want. As long as you come back down here and lay with me,” you smile as she turns back to you.

Kanaya relaxes and slides back down on the couch. The both of you continue to rest for a while longer to the sound of rain falling and dinner sizzling.

After dinner you asked Kanaya where she wanted to sleep tonight. It led to her giving a very sheepish yes when you suggested she could come cuddle with you for the night. You tried to play it as cool as you could, but right after you suggested it you felt you could feel your face redden and immediately thought ‘ _ damn did I really just say that _ ’. She said that sounded nice since she’s never slept in a human bed before and it must be comfy since I sleep so much. 

You managed to get kanaya to you room by having her sitting in a chair and dragging said chair. Thanks you proceeded to dump Kanaya on the bed as lovingly as you could. You toss the quilt you given Kanaya earlier over her and left her momentarily as you clean the dishes and rinse the pans.

Not even a half an hour later you return to Kanaya softly snoring comfortably. Her tail hanging off the edge of the bed twitching in her light sleep.

Oh, how cute.

You have no intentions of waking her and there's not much you really wanted to get done you might as well take a nap too. If it just so happens that nap leads you to wake up the next morning well that's alright with you too. With change of more comfortable clothes you ease yourself on the mattress carefully, not wanting to wake your fishy guest. You make a soft landing, but somehow in your inconstant insufferable shifting and constantly adjusting your position you managed to rouse her.

“Mmhm? Oh I feel asleep didn’t I? I’m sorry Rose,” she stretches and wraps her arms around her neck and leans into the pillow before meeting your gaze.

“Oh i don’t mind,” you hum and you move your hands to her face.

Using your thumb you trace over the rougher parts of her skin. It wasn’t quite like the scales on her tail, more like the skin on some sort of reptile. The rough skin faded into a shimmering jade that matched her equally jade eyes. They both contrasted beautifully with her brown skin.

“Rose?’

“Hm?”

“Are you alright? You’ve been rubbing my cheek and looking at me with that stupid smile on your face for at least two minutes.”

“Hm, I fear I must be bewitched.”

“I know the sun has fallen but it’s still a little too early for this level of flirting. Are you thirteen?”

“This is the part where I say another smooth and witty quip to make you swoon for me harder, but now I feel like you objective is to make fun of me.”

“As it always is.”

“That’s fair, always keep your goals in sight Kanaya.”

“Don’t worry it’s an easy goal.”

“Oh, ouch,” you frown at her not truly hurt, only continuing to play along.

“Oh,” your act may have been a little too convincing because her expression now mirrors yours only with more earnest,” I’m sorry.”

You take her hand and kiss her palm and let your expression shift into a soft smile,”don’t worry Kan I am not hurt. All in good fun.”

“Ah, alright,” she eased up enough to smile back at you,” for the record, I do like that stupid smile it’s a shame I don’t see it as often.”

“Your request has been noted and taken to our executives for further analysis.”

“Hm, I think it may be more of a personal challenge for myself.”

“I will do everything in my power to not look like a fool from now.”

“I will do everything in my power to make you look like a fool,” Kanaya quips right back at you before smoothly transitioning to a forehead kiss, ”only for me though.”

“In that case the council may allow this request, but not tonight. It’s late, office hours are over, and I’m tired.”

“Alas, I submit I am all yours.”

You turn onto your back and pull Kanaya to rest on top of you, which she happily obliged to. Her ears twitched and she twisted herself to rest her face near your neck. You grab some of the quilt she's wrapped in and pull some to cover yourself as well. Her scaly tail rubbed against your leg but not enough to hurt. The possibility of you waking up to a few scratches seems to be in your future. Though not concerning right now for you. Right now you're more focused on Kanaya’s now much slower breath at your neck. It’s rhythm soothes you into a more relaxed state and it soon blends into background noise along with the soft sounds of rain and wind outside.

Before you know it you’ve fallen asleep along with her.


	4. Chapter 4

Thunder booming in the distance stirs you from your sleep. You managed to have turned on your side in your sleep at some point. Familiar brown and jade arms lie lightly wrapped around you still.

“Kan?”

“Hm, yes? Hello Rose,” a soft voice replies from behind you.

“Good morning. Did you sleep alright?”

“I did indeed. Though it appears you tried to make an escape from me during the night. Was I too heavy?”

“No no, you’re fine. I seem to have a hard time getting comfortable even in my sleep. I’m prone constantly moving. Sorry about that. Uh, are you alright here? I was thinking about maybe taking a shower since you’re not confined to the bathroom.”

“What were you gonna do if I couldn’t be moved?”

“Well,” you pause,” if I’m gonna be honest. I did not think about it.”

Kanaya laughs and her grip around you tightens. You refrain for your urge to shower, but only for a bit longer. She buries her face in your hair and covers your head in kisses as you relax to her and the sound of rain. At least three times you catch your eyelids drooping a little too much and wandering into going back to sleep. Kanaya has taken your hands and starting tracing patterns in them. She was thankfully ignoring the numerous band aids covering your hands and wrists, and no comment was made on the strange dark discoloration on your left hand from a magic incident. The soothing feeling was not helping you stay awake.

“You really don’t want me to leave do you,” you mumble.

“Oh what makes you say that? I’m only being nice to my host,” you could practically feel Kanaya smile into your hair.

“I’m going to fall asleep on you.”

“Oh no how terrible. Whatever am I going to do?”

“Smartass,” you turn to her and nuzzle your face in between hers and the pillow.

Kanaya takes this opportunity to land as many kisses as she can on your cheek. As she does this you put your hands on her chest and light wrap on of your legs around her tail as much as you could. You bury your face harder to stifle out your giggles and wrap After the tenth one you take her face and pull her to your lips.

Which you hold for a nice moment then eventually you pull away only enough to turn and gently bite her upper lip, “release me vile sea witch.”

“Ah, but you stay from your own free will! You never made any motion to escape what makes you think I was forcing you to stay!”

You press your finger to her nose,” shut up.”

Before you give her a chance to reply you twist out of her light grip. Though, you movements may have been a little too fast as you turn your legs your calf catches on the scales of her tail and they trace as few scratches across your skin. No big deal really, but you instinctively say ‘ouch’ after the scales connect with your leg.

“Rose, are you alright,” Kanaya moves her tail away and sits up.

“Don’t worry it’s only a small scratch. Cats have done worse to me,” you stand up, ”oh, now that I think of it do you want a sweater or something so you don’t have to live in that quilt for the rest of your time here? I’m not sure if it’ll fit over your fins though.”

“Oh I don’t believe they’ll poke holes in your clothing or anything. They’re not too strong, but yes I think I’ll take you up on that offer. It is very cold out of water I do not know how humans do it.”

“Clothing helps. Alright here,” you take an older sweater feature a small black cat with four eyes and toss it to Kanaya, “need any help?”

“No I’m fairly certain it’s self explanatory thank you though,” Kanaya carefully lifts the sweater and puts it on without issue, “not quite sure about the abhorrent color and design. Why does this cat have four eyes.”

“Hey. That was a gift, and pink is a good color.”

“Maybe so, anyways go shower. I feel if I don’t remind you you’ll never do it. You are very prone to distractions.”

You refrain from snapping back and just settle to point at her before exiting the room. As you step into the bathroom you realize you forgot to drain the tub. Whoops. While your waiting for it to slowly drain you fetch a towel and check your leg again to make sure you aren’t bleeding. Nothing but a few already dimming red marks. They’ll be gone by the end of the day. After the tub is drained you run the water till is warm, undress, and step into the welcome warm water.

Not wanting to take too long, you force yourself to step out almost as soon as you got in. Only taking time to wash your body and hair before shutting the water off. After relatively drying off and changing into nicer clothes for the day you venture back into your bedroom where Kanaya was sitting up now with her back again the wall.

She looks up at you, ”oh, that didn’t take long.”

“I refrained myself from sitting in the tub and losing myself in the seventeenth dimension,” you sit on the side of the bed near were she’s curled up.

“Witches are just pleasant people to live with aren’t they?”

“I think I may be a special kind of pleasant,” you laugh, but as you turn to her again all you see her reply with was a reserved smile.

Oh no. You shift and sit yourself more so on the bed with one leg hanging off and make sure your sitting facing her.

You carefully reach for her hands to make sure she was ok with you touching her then you take then in yours, “what’s wrong?”

She doesn’t look at you for a moment and that moment sends your brain into the most panicked it’s been in a while. You didn’t let it show of course, but as your stoic face looked towards her with hints on concern your brain was running through every possible scenario as to why she could be mad at you in the less than half an hour you were apart from her. She starts to say something then sighs and goes quiet again. You were so lost in your own thoughts as soon as you snapped back she was already silent again. The silence was heavy and charged with static that threatened to shock you if you said the wrong thing.

So you kept quiet.

Quiet only gets you so far tough.

After a minute of staring at Kanaya and her not meeting your gaze you break the silence, “did I do something?”

“No. No you haven’t done anything wrong. You’ve done so much for me, because I’m pathetic on land. I can’t do a thing to repay you. I feel like I’m just dead weight at this point. Is this even worth it for you at this point? Do you even want me here when I’m so reliant on you? This wasn’t even your idea either I just basically forced-.”

You gently put your hand to her face to stop her from rambling, ”do you not want to be here?”

“You see that’s the thing I want to stay. I like being here. With you.”

“Well then. You’ve only been here for almost a day and I don’t think you’re any kind of burden. You’re not weighing me down or anything I promise you. If you enjoy being here like you say you are then I’m as elated as you are.”

“Are you sure this is even worthwhile?”

“Kan, if you'll let me for as long as you're here I'm willing to prove I want this to work and that I want you here with me. Though I am limited in my actions due to the storm, so will you be able to find it in your heart to accept smaller, domestic deeds of affection.”

“I think I'd prefer the smaller less costly acts. Please try not to do anything too much for me,” she leans into your hand still against her cheek, “at least hold out until I'm able to return the favor.”

You lean in to embrace her, “I hope I can control myself. I'll start small right now, come here.”

Kanaya accepts your advance and follows through with a hug. Her embrace was a lot softer than usual from the sweater you gave her. Warmer too. You lean farther to press yourself closer to Kanaya and in turn pushing her back. Maybe a little too much force was applied and she falls back onto the bed. Or maybe it was a ploy to get you to lay back down with her. One arm gets stuck under her, but with your free hand you search for Kanaya's and entwine your fingers with hers. You move up as much as you can in your trapped state to get a bit more comfortable, and you settle down with your forehead touching hers.

“I'm going to fall asleep here Kanaya this is your fault,” you mumble.

She laughs, “oh no. Whatever shall I do. I'll be stuck here. Helpless and all alone, with no one to hear my cries of help.”

“Your punishment for insolence,” you turn your face into the pillow and your words get more muffled.

Kanaya kisses your nose, “cute.”

You turn even more into your pillow. Attempted to not give her the gratification she’ll get from seeing you flustered from one well placed comment. Though you are unable to continue smothering yourself for long, which leads you to almost immediately surrendering your stance. You shift back and nonchalantly take in a big breath. Kanaya had her eyes closed already, but a small smile was still lingered on her lips. Not quite asleep, but almost there. You move your left hand to cup her face and she leans into your palm instinctively. Finger brush the rougher parts of her cheek. Although rough, you loved the feeling, it soothed you to touch it. Kanaya's arms find their way under your shirt and in return you wrap your arms around her neck.

Thunder rumbles in the distance as the rainfall starts to get seriously heavy, but none of that mattered you were inside with your girlfriend from the sea and you were now determined to make her feel at home now that she was ashore.

You have work to do, but it can wait till the afternoon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote so much of this one my phone i hope theres not too many terrible errors.


	5. Chapter 5

Afternoon comes a little too fast for you, and though you'd promised yourself you'd get to work finally, you're extremely reluctant to move from your girlfriend's grasp. You continue to lay there for a spell, listening to the rain and Kanaya mumbling in her sleep. Admittedly, she's remarkably cute asleep. Probably about as cute as she is awake, though she smiles more when not in slumber, but her face is so calm and relaxed you can help yourself studying the soft curves of her jaw and the lines under her eyes.

Urgh. Your getting a little too sappy for even yourself to deal with. Now's a good time to start working lest you want to continue your sappy mental monologue over your extremely pretty girlfriend's wrapped around you.

Speaking of your extremely pretty girlfriend wrapped around you, your escape from her grasp seems to be an unobtainable feat at the moment. You carefully pull back your arms and gently push away from her. Kanaya's grasp, surprisingly, gives way without resistance. After a few agonizing minutes you escape her clutches without stirring her from sleep. Very impressive. You slide off the bed and before you leave to work you make sure to pull up the quilt at the end of her tail and tuck her gently in.

Your work desk was, strictly saying, a mess. Piles of mismatched herbs, pouches of mismatched dust, and plenty of other trinkets used in the spells you give to villagers. The mess that you told yourself you were going to do later. Later came a little too fast yet again. Now you’re stuck sorting this out. You specifically remember how you thought if you waited a bit you'd have more energy to sort this out despite this absolutely never being the case. You’re not very adept at learning from your mistakes.

You roll up your sleeves and get to work anyway. Pride helping bring out the scraps of self determination that are still present in you.

Within the hour you managed to get piles of ingredients scattered across your workspace. As a break you help a newly awakened Kanaya out of your room to sit near you. She quietly admires the trinkets and herbs as you try to identify the few piles of ground up material. Let's see. The first one is conveniently labeled glass so rewrap the cloth to contain it and set it to the side. Glancing at you notes the second one appears to be a partly made spell requested by a villager. The last, was conveniently not labeled at all. You scan through you notes with a ting of fear. Hopefully if you can't claim this it isn't anything too important. As you flip through your notes you don't notice Kanaya bringing the mixture closer to her.

You get to the final page dejectedly and Kanaya finally speaks, “ ground up lizard’s teeth, apple seeds, and dirt.”

“Huh,” you lift your head up to look at her holding the cloth with the mixture in her hands.

“You were fretting over what was in this so I, being a magical creature, used my sensitivity to magical ingredients to see if I can assist you. “

“Oh, that's. Incredibly convenient.”

“You’re welcome dear.”

“Thank you, you are so incredibly talented,beautiful, and sexy, and if there is anything I can do to repay you please let me know,” you over dramatically say and you take the cloth from her and mark it accordingly.

“Do your work before you get in trouble. Your not going to use your repayment as a distraction,” she says very matter of factly.

“Alright, alright. After though, do you think you’ll be available?”

“I’ll find time in my schedule. I’m very busy and in very high demand.”

“I appreciate such a holy creature finding time to spend time with such-”

“Rose get to work.”

Alright then,” you pick up your notes and search through your list.

Throughout the next hour you gather materials for spells with Kanaya helping occasionally, handing you things, and even giving some magical insight. She very much loved talking about the things she knew. Although you weren’t aware mermaids knew so much about magic, granted you weren’t a master yourself. You enjoyed how much her eyes lit up when she spoke, and because she looked so happy, and, dare you say, cute, you let her ramble on and on. She stopped a few times embarrassed to be talking so much without letting you speak, but with your encouragement, she continued on her spew of knowledge and experiences. Listening to her was the best thing for you to work to, and you didn’t want to interrupt her.  You worked on the rest of the villagers requests as she spoke to you and just as she finished her ramble you decide to stop too. Breaks are important you know. Only working an hour and taking a three hour break to spend time with your girlfriend is the only optimal way to do anything.

After tying a bag and making sure you mark down it’s contents correctly you look up to Kanaya who was smiling to herself quietly. You catch yourself smiling as well and steady your face to save looking like a fool. Even after years of being alive you don’t look how you look while you smile. A habit you want to quit, though every time Kanaya says that she adores you smile you convince yourself you were going to stop policing yourself. It’s a work in progress though, you’ll give yourself that.

“Kanaya,” you call, “ready to take a break?”

“Don’t use me to get yourself out of work Rose.”

“No no no. I got plenty done today. Plus what kind of host would I be if I just made my dear guest watch me put shit together and say a few magic words?”

“Well. I had fun,” she smiles again, much warmer than before, “when do these need to be done do the villagers just come by at random to get them. Will they be concerned about me being here? I am quite terrifying.”

“Personally, I’d say more striking. Strikingly beautiful.”

“Ha Ha Rose. Very cute of you, but I’m aware of what most people think of mermaids. Not only that, but a trans lesbian mermaid. Terrifying I know. The more labels I add the scarier I get. I’ll think of more labels for my title later. It’s a work in progress. Uh, grr, yeah.”

“Oh please go on,” you take a seat right by her and prop your head up with your arm, smirking.

“Hm,” Kanaya thinks only slightly caught off guard, but she's capable enough to recover quickly and continue the conversation, “a terrible beast who loves to wake up early. Loves to lay on the beach in the sun, and the how hot you can get the water in your bathtub.”

“This is starting to sound like a description from a dating profile.”

“I hope your taking notes. I heard she's also very terrifying and only a fool would ever fall in love with her. Mirrors scream and shatter in her presence.”

“Hold on, I think I need to steel myself before I gaze your visage once more.”

“Take your time.”

“Time’s up, turns out my world gets just a little bit grayer when I’m not looking at-.”

“Rose I love you but save the for some sleepy morning with the sun peeking through, the windows so I don’t laugh at how cheesy you sound.”

“Well, looks like I’m going to be needing to keep a poetry journal to vent to in the moment. Prepare for an all out attack sometime in the future darling Kanaya,” you take her hand and plant a kiss on her knuckles.

You continue with your cheek pressed against her hand, “ I’m assuming sometime after the storm has cleared up they’ll be trickling in. I won’t make you show your face if it’s stressing you out. We can even plan to get you back to the sea if needed. Oh, and speaking of that, are you still feeling alright?”

“A little strange, but I’m fine. Do you think you could imagine yourself in water for over a day?”

“Well Kanaya, I can tell you I cannot hold my breath that long.”

“Whoops. Anyways,” she attempts to change the subject almost immediately, but was interrupted by your stomach growling.

“Okay,” you say, “dinner first, then we can engage in some form of recreational activity?”

Kanaya nods and you go fish out some leftover food to eat. Which Kanaya politely requests to eat to cold when you go to heat it up. You try not to think about it took much because the initial thought of eating this cold was a little off putting, but you aren't eating it. No need to be so rude you think to yourself. You hand Kanaya a plate of food and retake the chair next to her and eat in a familiar silence. Comfortable even. Outside the rain starts to stutter and get quieter. Thunder rumbles off in the distance once again.

As soon as you finish you both retire to your couch with you snuggling under Kanaya having her lay on top. Dishes can wait you tell yourself knowing full well you won't get to it till very late. You do your best to set up your laptop to play a movie, and you let Kanaya choose which one shit thinks sounds the most interesting. Not even looking at the one she picks you play it, and let the sound drift into the background. Lazily, you trace the length of her spine. The muscles of her back slowly retract to your touch. Similar to a cats. Her fins expand as your hand slides past them then slowly fall once you lift your hand up to go back up to her hair.

You make a few rounds before you ask, “does this hurt?”

“No,” Kanaya hums, face buried into your neck, “keep going.”

“Really interesting movie huh?”

She laughs, “hey I'm being distracted.”

“My cats used to do something like this,” you think aloud.

“You had feline friends that had fins?”

“No, that would be...something though. I’m thinking of getting a cat sometime. If that’s alright with you of course. I need to add more points to my witchy repertoire. Are you cold? You took off the sweater  I gave you before I dragged you in here. Or was it too ghastly you could bear it anymore.”

“It's very, to put it simply, off to wear for long periods of time. Regardless you're much warmer and much more comfy to be around,” she turns her head and you feel her hair brush your cheek.

“Hm,” you hum, ”glad I could help.”

As soon as you finished your sentence Kanaya shoves her hands under the back of your shirt, you flinched at her touch, and can feel her smiling smugly against your collarbone.

“Ah Kanaya, a little warning would be nice.”

“Noted,” she says as she tries to stretch as much as she can in this position.

Kanaya quiets and settles on tracing shapes into your back. The sting oh her cold fingers lessens after a few moments. The movie long forgotten in both of your minds. Her smile still lingers as she gets up to look you in the eye.

“Yes,” you smile back.

Her response was a quick kiss to your jaw before continuing to cling to you once more. The both of you settle back into silence, which you greatly enjoy. Not to say you don’t like when you’re talking to Kanaya or whenever Kanaya talks in great lengths about something she loves, but silence is an appreciated gift. Especially the ones accompanied by someone else. Silence that doesn’t sting. Silence that warmly embraces you. It lingers for a time. You seemed to be focusing more on Kanaya’s breath on you chest moreso than the movie. Which you admit, for a time, you forgot was going on.

“Rose,” Kanaya breathes after a moment and her voice gets heavier, “I fear I may, in fact, fall asleep here.”

“Well, it happens. Looks like I’ll be sleeping here too.”

“Sorry.”

“Oh no don’t be this couch is comfortable I like sleeping here. Goodnight Kanaya,” you kiss her hair.

You’re not sure if Kanaya ever stayed awake long enough to respond. It may have been masked by the low volume of the movie combine with a dull rumbling of another possible wave of thunder. The storm should be nearing its end, if it hasn’t already. Tomorrow you’ll try and take a little walk to look around. You run your fingers through Kanaya’s hair playing with it as she snoozes on your chest. She still smells like the ocean. After carefully taking the time to shift yourself into a more comfortable position to try and not stir her, you lean into the couch pillow and relax a bit before finally falling asleep once again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am...abysmally bad at this writing fast thing. I was trying to hold this off until i had the next chapter done but I am...like 1/4 done with that so i might as well throw this out here.


	6. Chapter 6

It was dark now. Not a foreign darkness. You've been here before. You know this is a dream. Maybe nightmare is a more accurate description. Even being aware of your dreaming state does nothing to stop the creeping sensation on your ankle. Grabbing. Pulling. Your ankle tingles from it and your leg is a little strained. You twist to try and pull yourself away and your hands gravitate towards an invisible flat surface. The rest of your body follows and you soon find yourself laying on this flat surface in the middle of this dark space. The tingling has stopped, but you don’t get the feeling you’re alone. It’s the same feeling you get when traveling home at night and you can feel eyes locked onto your back and you don’t dark turn and look. Sensors in your brain screaming wildly that something is wrong, something is off, there's danger near you, but all the nets a response of your muscles freezing and you feel a seizing coldness under your skin.You hands tense and try to get a grip on the floor. A distinct nauseous chill runs through your spine as you try to stand.

All of the sudden like it wasn't any effort you were standing. In your living room. Everything was hazy like your vision hadn't focused just yet. You look down at your hands. Just as unfocused as the rest yet you pay no mind to the strangeness at all in fact what had just occurred wasn't uneven in your mind at all.  You're not really sure why your here at all. Maybe you just woke up and are still in a daze? Your thoughts are slowing coming back, but you're still in a fog. So you make for the bathroom to splash some water on your face and wake up. Try to brush your teeth or even shower again. There was less stumbling than you thought. You guess all you needed was a little walk, and you wonder if it's clear enough to go outside for a time.Hunched over the sink you take a deep breath and look into the mirror. For a split second, before you blink you swear you saw nothing in your reflection. Looking now you look a bit estranged, but you were still there. Immediately after checking your reflection you make your way to the shower and let the water run as you sit on the tile and wait for it to warm up some. A quick shower you think, Kanaya wont even notice that you're gone. No sitting in there for three hours.

You lose yourself for a second in the sound of water running and forget how much time has passed. Enough at least, since your foot was asleep now and the static-y feeling climbed it's way up to your ankle. An attempt to relieve it was made by rubbing your ankle, but the terrible feeling intensifies so the attempted was immediately dropped, instead you stand and hop back to the sink ignoring the running water.

Staring back at you in the mirror was you.

At least at first it looked like you. Her skin faded from the normal brown to a darker and darker gray, the life slowly draining from the skin. You touch your face in reaction, and the other follows through. Like a reflection.

This wasn't you.

You reach for the mirror, with the girl in the mirror mimicking you. A chill seeped under your skin when your fingers grazed the mirror. The chill runs down your fingers and runs through to your arm. The pads of your fingers touch a slightly rougher version of a mirror than you remember. You freeze. Black stained tears form in the reflections eyes, as you hold in the impulse to touch your cheek, You're not sure if you have quite as good self control as you think, or if a cold fear is preventing you from moving. The reflection blinks, you stare on in some sort of blank frozen horror as the tears stream down her face. She slowly blinks again, and you see two blank pure white eyes staring back at you.

And then you wake up.

Another, more notably real, chill runs through you as you jolt back to reality. You lay there, with Kanaya still snoozing on top of you, simmering in a post nightmare haze. A deep breath and your body finally relaxes with only a light twitching lingering in your calves and arms. The breath you took was sharp enough to stir Kanaya who was still resting quietly on your chest. She didn't seem startled or anything, groggily stirring and stretching enough so she doesn't smack you in the face, but makes no motion to acknowledge you. You realize you were actually holding your breath on accident and gave and elongated exhale, which seemed to nudge Kanaya to look up at you unfortunately. Her face almost immediately slips into a warm smile as she stretches to wrap her arms around your neck. Admittedly, upon seeing her smile the thoughts that lingers from your nightmare were corralled to a small insignificant corner in your mind. You even think you also gave a small smile in return. She gives you a look, then abruptly sits up. The force of her pushing off of your leads you to give a small grunt before following her and sitting up with her to see what is wrong.

She holds your face in her hands,” is everything alright dear.”

You were very much taken aback by the softness of her words, and the tenderness in her voice.

You put your hands over hers carefully, “I'm fine, don't worry.

After you carefully place your hands over hers you tell her, “I'm fine, don't worry.”

Squinting, she doesn't look at all convinced, she moves both of her hands and takes your left one in hers. Gently she rubs her fingers over the now grayish-black tips of yours. Her fingers brush your knuckles right where the newly grown marking as ended. You just now noticed it has grown, and you try to make no acknowledgement of it and hope it slips past Kanaya.

“Rose,” just by her tone you know that was not the case.

You give her less credit than she deserves.

“I told you before, us mermaids are sensitive to magic,” she leans forward to kiss your knuckle,” this is no ordinary mark I cannot overlook this.”

“Well,” you start but you’re not  sure how to continue this sentence.

Silence hangs over you as you attempt to form a coherent thought, but you’re not sure where to start.

“Ah, wait. That was rude. I don't mean to pry, I'm sorry Rose,” she drops your hand after apologizing.

“It's some magical scarring,” you almost interrupted her,”from an apprentice mistake some years ago.”

Kanaya stays silent, listening.

Taking that silence you continue, “ in short, I ,stupidly as I do always, took on a summoning way over my little head. Not sure how I stopped the abomination I summoned, my memory fails me, but it took a toll on me. As you can see my hand has blackened, the marking seems to have a mind of its own, moving frequently as you've seen. Not only that but I don't seem to have much feeling in it. Some sort of numbness is packaged with the hand marking. It's been long enough that I've gotten used to it so it doesn't hinder me anymore. Just…strange sometimes. Its growth it seems trail behind me waking from nightmarish scenarios. Possibly some sort of haunting? I don't dwell on it much. Ah sorry now I'm just rambling. I'm fine really this is very normal for me. No need for worry.”

Her ears droop, but Kanaya makes no move to react. She stays put, looking down at her hands. You were worried she might cry so you hold her face in your hands carefully to get to look back up at you. Her head turns into your hand and she does look back at you in return.

“I am fine don't worry,” you give her a small smile.

Kanaya sighs, “ if I'm being honest I'm not convinced, but just this once I will trust you.”

“I will not let you down”, you move your hands to hers to tug her to lay back down with you, “please?”

“Rose Lalonde strictly speaking you are trying to 'lead me down’ this very moment.”

“Ah, guilty as charged. Forgive me?”

“Maybe,” she comes down and lays her head where it was on your shoulder, “you are absolutely sure you are fine?”

“Much better now that you're right here nurse Kanaya.”

“OK first off, never call me that ever again or I will crawl out of your home myself to go back to the ocean, and two, I’ll be honest I forgot where I was going with this. Go to sleep Rose, “ she carefully enunciated each word in the last sentence. 

“In due time my dear Kanaya,” you stall.

Thankfully the light of your computer was still on and you thanked yourself for plugging in earlier, along with another dim light so you weren’t sitting in the threatening darkness, but you weren’t too keen on shutting your eyes right now even with Kanaya right here. Your hand finds its way back to her hair and you aimlessly run your fingers through it.

“Soft,” you accidentally whisper hoping she didn’t hear.

“Thank you my secret is ocean water.” ah, fuck, she did.

She continues, ”now go to sleep.”

You keep quiet to make it look like you at least attempting to sleep to keep up appearances. No need to stumble through another conversation of you terribly convincing her that you are fine, which you sort of are, at least in comparison to how bad these episodes can play out. You distract yourself with the light scratching of the tree limbs against your window. Under you, Kanaya shifts, pinning your leg in an awkward position. Leading you to lay there slightly uncomfortable enough that you can’t relax enough to even remotely get to sleep. You try to force yourself to stop focusing on it, maybe you’ll just forget about it if you get used it? After who knows how many long drawn out minutes your future of being comfortable is looking bleak. The wind picks up outside as you weigh in whether or not making yourself comfortable would be well worth waking Kanaya up, if she’s asleep. Either way you're definitely going to let her know you’re still awake.

As soon as you gave up hope on all your options Kanaya shifts around again, but this time she shifts, holds that position for a while then moves again. Which struck you as a little odd. From this angle you don’t have a solid view of what she’s doing, but you're convinced she’s not just moving in her sleep or getting comfortable. You decide to wait a little more, admittedly you’re scared you may be overreacting because your girlfriend can’t get comfortable, and Kanaya’s very patient with you moving all over the place when you try to find a agreeable position, so you’ll wait. Just a little. You check the clock on your still lit computer. The light was piercing on your eyes, but you managed to see a 2 a.m. on the taskbar. 5 minutes seems like a decent time to wait.

T he seconds tick by, and you find yourself manually breathing quietly. Not even out of any anticipation or wanting to listen for any sounds, you were just focusing so hard it was happening. 

Not even two minutes pass before Kanaya moves again this time slowly curling up. You swear you hear her mumble something too. 

Even more worried now you speak up, Kanaya?”

“Hm?” She hums, barely audible.

“Are you alright,” you whisper.

She doesn't respond and you can only hear her breathing above the soft humming of your laptop. You push yourself back up to a sitting position while still holding Kanaya before she pushes away from you.

“Yeah,” her voice cracks as she finally answers you.

A little hurt, you back off as she doesn’t look back at you. You were suddenly hyper aware of how little capability she has to distance herself from you.

So you ask a little awkwardly, “um, do you want me to leave you alone? Is there anything I can do?”

She sighs heavily, “ah, shit. I’m so sorry Rose,” and places her face in her hands.

“Woah, woah. Don’t worry about it. Just. Are you hurt? Is there something I can do,” your voice softens with each word and you gingerly touch her arm to make sure she’s alright with you touching her.

Kanaya just looks down and lightly touches the twisting circular scar across her stomach. Again she mumbles something and you could only pick out a few words such as 'itch’ and 'hurts.’ You could feel your heart drop for her. 

The scar was something you knew of, and was even the reason you met Kanaya, but it was not something you liked to call attention to since you knew it severely bothered Kanaya and her mental state. To this day you're not sure what caused the wound, and you don't plan to ask, but you remember vividly being on the beach on evening to see the bloodied body of a mermaid washed up on shore. You never considered yourself a nurse, but you were surprised at how much you could do for her. Similar to how you got her here you bribed your friend Jade for her horse and cart to try and move her out of plain sight to a cave under a cliff, obviously wrapping her wound before as to not cover Jade’s cart with blood. You had no idea if you could’ve gotten yourself out of that one. After you utilize as many healing salves and elixirs as you can spare trying to help the wound stay clean and you had hope would help it heal properly, as properly as a mermaid wound could. The wound was grave and it was from some sort of magical attack as you could sense magical residue hovering around it. If a human had taken it they’d surely be dead. 

Kanaya recovered, you're not sure if fully, but enough physically. Mentally, well, you've never seen it bother her like this. Your hand on her arm snakes around her back and curl yourself around her in some sort of awkward hug.

“Thank you,” she whispers in your shoulder.

“I'll be honest, I don't have any wise words to comfort you but I am here for you if you ever need me.”

“Ah, thank you Rose. It really means a lot….I just…am not sure what to do right now. I feel..numb.

“Well, we can sit here till you’re not anymore. Though, maybe a more comfortable spot would be best.”

“Ah yes please.”

The both of you move so instead of awkwardly being on top of each other you and Kanaya were sitting side by side with your arms around her. You sit there silently, with your head on her shoulder, and her head rested on yours. She didn’t seem to mind the silence. It was relaxing. Your mind blanked and the stress of your previous nightmare, and your worries about Kanaya drifted away and was replaced by the soothing silence and the feeling of Kanaya in your arms.


	7. Chapter 7

You will admit, you have no idea when you fell asleep, but what was more unusually was that you woke up in your bed. Without Kanaya. Naturally, you tensed up in terror. Afraid that you sleep walked back to bed and left her. Exiting your room you walk into an empty living space. Panic was imminent. Looking over at the couch you spot a quilt and pillows on the floor. So at least this wasn’t a, you were dreaming about taking your beautiful mermaid girlfriend home instead of actually doing it scenario. You doubt she couldn’t have gone far if she did leave. Though you’re door was ever so nicely shut and if you remember correctly, locked. Hesitantly, you peek your head into the last place that you haven’t checked. Which you’re greeted by the lone figure submerged, as much as she could, in the bath. Half her face was underwater and her eyes paid no attention to you peeking it. She was just staring on in front of her. Not sure if you wanted to disturb her, you continue to stare. You wanted to go for a walk maybe now was the opportune time she may want to be alone.

Instead you open your mouth anyways.

“Hey,” you say quietly.

No response. Not even an acknowledgment of your existence in the doorway.

“I’m going out for a bit, I’ll be back soon,” you’re not even going to comment or ask how she got in there,” do you need anything?”

You think you see her slowly shake her head. Nothing more. You take it and quietly change into better clothes for a small walk. The rain hasn’t started up since you woke up, and it seem that the sun is peeking through the clouds. Ideally you’re interested in searching for some lightning stricken branches, and a few pine cones. For the former you may need to climb a tree, which is work and you usually ask Jade for some, but you’ve been asking a lot from her. You might as well try and search for some lower, easier ones you can reach to without injuring yourself. Maybe investing in a familiar that can climb trees would be best. You creak the door open as carefully as you can before setting off.

It must be still morning, just past dawn. Which is, very unusual for you. Mornings, usually receive a sleeping his from you and you refuse to fully awaken before noon. Today at least, you weren’t as tired. It was quite enjoyable. You very much already do enjoy rain, and how the sky looks before and after it showers. The air was thick with moisture still, and the ground still muddy. The mud was the least enjoyable part, thankfully you have one pair of boots dedicated to getting as muddy as possible, thus you having no really need to clean them every time they get dirty. You can barely keep up with the rest of your cleaning. You reach the middle of the small patch of woods near your home in no time. Pine cones conveniently, were scattered across the grass. Knocked down by the winds. You collect a few of the bigger, and less muddy, ones. Now for the harder one. Ideally, you’d be happy to come home with two struck branches, but if you only see one you’ll be damned if you don’t climb for it.

Conveniently, just as you finished your thought, your eye catches a blackened branch. Just a few feet above you. Not a bad climb. You secure your bag around you before reaching for the split in the trunk on the struck tree. Standing in the split and wiping your hands, you spot an easy path for an opportunity to reach, and you climb on. The thick branch you clung to was grossly damp and was possibly making an ugly wet tree print on your clothing. Still holding on for dear life with one arm, you reach out to break the branch off with your other.

Snap.

Ah, that wasn’t too bad.

You start the climb down smugly. It may have been a little too early to be smug. As soon as you let yourself down to the starting split in the tree you misjudge the how far you actually were from it. When, you eased yourself down you went a little too fast, possibly slipped, you really didn’t know.

You did know that you fell. Hard. Of course you did. You can’t get anything done without doing something stupid or injuring yourself. Defeated by a simple immovable tree, you lay on the ground. You’ve accepted that your clothes are disgusting so there’s no point in scrambling up.

Actually, you can feel the mud seeping into your clothes, this is disgusting.

The branch was now safely in your bag so your little quest was complete, if you need more you’ll just have to suck up your pride and ask for assistance. You’re done with climbing trees for now. You go home, your knees creaking and figure you probably collected a bruise or two. How nice.

Coming back home you were less graceful than when you were leaving. Your door sometimes sticks and conveniently it was stuck now, leading you to slam yourself into the door to get it open. The momentum from it causes you to just as gracefully stumbled into you home. To Kanaya. Who was still soaking wet and sprawled on the floor a little shocked by your entrance.

“Rose,” she almost shouts,” you’re alive!”

You drop your bag and rush towards her, “of course I’m alive.”

She grabs your arms and pulls you into a hug. A very damp hug, but you were already lightly soaked so what of a little more water. Kanaya looked like she was seconds away from crying.

“I knew you were going to be gone, but I was worried it felt too long.”

“Ah, sorry,” you apologize,”there was a few technical difficulties.”

Kanaya pulls away to look you over, “are you alright?”

“Am I ‘alright,” you muse, “one could say so-.”

“Rose.”

“I’m fine I just fell. Took a small tumble if you will. Just don’t hug me too hard I’ll be fine.”

“I’ll try to control myself with my big strong fish muscles.”

“Thank you for your consideration. Do you mind if I just drop you off in my room while I steal the shower to get all this mud off me. We can talk later if you want.”

“Very well,” she kisses your cheek.

She was back, or at least a bit more comfortable now. You think as you help her around, not very gracefully mind you. You’re still aching from the fall and still aren’t strong enough to just straight up carry her. Kanaya takes a towel from you to wrap herself in and dry off a bit. Unsure of what sparked her isolating herself earlier, you hope she’ll maybe talk a bit to feel better later. You planned to bring her back to the ocean later this evening, and you’d hate her leaving on a sour note.

You empty the tub and wipe down the floors as you wait for the water to heat up, making sure to bring a change of clothes with you since the ones your are wearing are a lost cause. Once you finally get in the shower you don’t take to long, only making sure you get rid of all the dirt smudged all over your face and spots that soaked through your clothes. Getting out and turning the shower off you faintly hear the sounds of a conversation. Your heart stops, but you immediately try to reason that it was possibly Kanaya speaking to herself.

That reasoning did not hold through very well as soon as you got just outside your bedroom door.

Through the door, you find Jade. Who apparently, just walked into your home, and started talking to Kanaya like it was no problem. Before they noticed you it seemed like they were two old friends catching up. Which is expected, Jade is an extremely nice person and practically radiates a friendly aura.

“Hey Rose!!!!”

She acted like she didn’t just walk into your home and see a mermaid possibly dozing off on your bet like it’s no big deal. Maybe you just expected some sort of yelling, or at least her calling for you. You suppose you are a bit relieved this is being handled calmly. Even so you still sigh and put your face in your hands at the sight.

“Hello, Jade,” you mutter,”you’re, well, here I guess. Do you need something.”

“Oh, not really. I was just checking up on my favorite recluse. I can’t believe you never told me you knew a mermaid. That’s so fucking sick. OK well I do know why you wouldn’t tell me Kanaya explained everything.”

You turn to Kanaya who was just curled up on your bed bed comfortably. She’s not really sure what to say so she just waves. She doesn’t seem mad of uncomfortable so, you’re not really mad I guess. This was going to happen eventually. Though a much more controlled scenario would’ve been ideal.

“Anyways,” Jade butts in, “I didn’t mean to just bust in and make myself home. I just wanted to visit you and make sure you were alive. Also nice to meet you too Kanaya, “Jade gets up and waves goodbye as she heads out.

“Hey,” you grab her as she passes you,” are you busy later I have another request I’d like to make.”

“Yeah ‘m free. Shoot.”

“I’ll message you later then, thanks.”

“Alright see ya!!”

Jade’s out the door before you even know it. You sigh again, that was stressful and a little awkward. It’s out of the way thought and now it might be easier to get Jade to help you move Kanaya, since you are not very strong at all. As long as Kanaya is OK with it.

“What was that about?”

“Oh, I am trying to enlist Jade to help me carry you back to the ocean later. If you permit of course,” you take a seat on the bed.

“That’s quite alright. She seems very nice. I like her, even though it was quite terrifying to hear someone come in and not be able to do anything about it. I was just about to take a nap too,” Kanaya stretches out and lays on your lap.

You take the opportunity to start playing with her hair, “sorry about that.”

She closes her eye, “it was awkward but it’s fine. Probably the best case scenario of a human walking in on my just here. We had a nice little chat as you were showering.”

“Oh?”

“About you.”

“Oh no.”

“I’m kidding. I can just imagine the look on your face. No mainly she just introduced herself, and asked me a few questions about, well, me being a mermaid.”

“You’re very cute when you’re smugly making fun of me.”

“Oh I will very much keep that in mind.”

She sighs as your hands weave their way in her hair, twirling her curls. You poke her cheek and she laughs. Ah how cute. Kanaya turns over to avoiding more pokes while still laughing. But you weren’t gonna allow her to escape so you wrap your arms around her torso and pull her up into a hug. Kissing her cheeks when she gets into proximity. Kanaya continues laughing and desperately tries to catch her breath. A few times you think you hear the phrase ‘Rose please.’ She manages to free one of her arms, and pushes your face away a little, just enough so she can catch her breath.

You lick her hands in retaliation.

“Ah! Rose,” she pulls her hand away and wipes it on your shirt,” gross.”

Sticking your tongue out, you threaten to lick her again. Kanaya frees her other arm to use to hold you at bay from leaning in and licking her cheek. Not only keeping you away from her but also pushing you back onto the bed. Immediately she pins you down, and looms over you, sticking her tongue out, mimicking you.

“This is evil you horrible woman. This is killing me. You’re going to kill me I hope you know this,” you say not even struggling because you know damn well you are a weak bitch.

‘You are so over dramatic.”

“It’s a talent thanks for noticing.”

She kisses you instead. Which you greatly appreciate, and can’t stop thinking about how soft her lips are. Then falls to press one for your forehead, then one on your eyelid. That you assume was a miss, but you admire her willingness to keep up appearances. One more kiss on the lips before ending with a hug that blended in with her just laying on you. Her head rests in her favorite spot on your shoulder.

“Feeling better?”

“Yeah. The shock you possibly being lost or injured and me not being able to help. Also having to force meet your friend really help me pull out of it.”

“Kanaya I’m so sorry.”

She laughs,” no don’t be I’m only joking your couldn’t really help it.”

“Please don’t remind my bruises that they exist I was comfortably enjoying not hurting for a while. Speaking on that you are laying right on one of them I’m gonna have to switch sides with you. One second.”

You slip out from under her before she could protest, since that was her favorite side, and sliding upwards to rest on a pillow. Kanaya follows and now clutches your left side. More carefully though, now aware that your side sill aches.

She kisses your shoulder, “ this alright?”

“Hold on,” you roll your shoulder and adjust your shirt,” now I’m fine.”

“So,” you continue,” is it not a good idea to ask if you would like to talk.”

“Um, I’ll get back to you on that.”

“Understandable, have a nice day.”

“Well-.”

You shut your mouth to let her speak, but you were met with nothing but silence. Looking down you see Kanaya preoccupation drawing little circles on your stomach. Saying nothing, you let her.

“Shit,” you find yourself saying out loud.

Kanaya, so surprised, props herself up and looks down at you perplexed.

“Sorry I just realized I left my bag by the door. I forgot about it.”

“Oh my god,” she lays back down and turns over, ”go get your bag.”

“Kanaya,” you turn to her and wrap your arms around her in a clumsy hug,” I love you.”

“I love you too, but go get your fucking bag or you wont stop thinking about it.”


	8. Chapter 8

    After throwing your bag near your work table, you tentatively peer into your bedroom doorway. Kanaya was still there o your bed flicking her tail around. Hopefully not irritated flicks. She doesn’t give you a glance as you lay back down beside her. Making sure to gently touch her back for a spell before wrapping your arms around her, as to not surprise her. Your hands rest gently above her waist, rising and falling with her breath., and your face rests close to her neck.

“Mad at me?”

“No,” a short answer from her.

“But something is wrong?”

You feel her hands resting above yours, clutching her stomach, “it wont stop itching. Maybe it hurts. I don’t know. I just want it to go away. I hate looking at this ugly scar. I hate how it hurts all the time. I-”

It takes a moment to register that she’s crying. She’s crying and you have no idea what to do. You feel her shoulders jerk with each suppressed sob, and she covers her face in her hands. The only response who can get out is to hug her tighter, you’re blanking on comforting words and it’s not helping your thorough process. Which at the moment is telling you to help her, but not giving any details. Some sort of helpful hint on comforting someone in distress would be nice. You settle for hugging her tight in silence, gently kissing her neck. Kanaya does, eventually calm down, and you think it’s best if you were to say something now would be a good time.

Speaking softly you say,” Kanaya, I’m very well aware I always don’t know what to say, even though I act like it, but underneath my 7 layers of snark I sincerely do care. Despite me not being very good at showing it. So I’m saying it now, uh, pathetically. My point being, I love you and I’m here to talk if you need it. Or just, hold you like I’m doing know, it’s really up to you. I’m here for you and, well, there’s not much I can directly do to help you when something like this happens, but maybe I can help make you forget about it. If you’ll allow me to. I’m also here to let you know you are still absolutely sexy despite what a stomach scar has to say about it. Also maybe I can lend you a shirt or two so you don’t have to see it. “

The last comment earns you a small snort.

“This offer starts now of course, or well the offer was always there I’m just reminding you.” you add.

Kanaya turns over, now facing you, “I don’t think that’s necessary right now, but maybe next time. Your shirts are warm, and they smell nice too.”

“They just smell like me and my home.”

“Rose,” she gives you a look, “I know that was the point.”

Oh.

You must have had a dumbfounded look on your face given how she was now giggling. At least she was feeling better. Only at the simple cost of you looking like an idiot.

She kisses your lips, “Rose please come back to this dimension.”

“I’m here. I’m here,” you take her hands and kiss them, “have a preference on when you’d like to return to the sea?”

“I don’t want to make it seem like I want to leave you, but I fear me being here for so long is leading to my steady mental decline.”

“Don’t worry, it’s fine. I understand. Baby steps, next time I wont have you stay so long and we can work our way up to something like this gradually.”

“That sounds nice.”

You get up and call for Jade who, like you predicted, wished in return for you to help her unpack her wares sometime after. Maybe you should invest in passing yourself as a psychic none of the townspeople will know. Still this was fine so it was an easy trade. You were probably going to help regardless since you asked her to pick up a few things. Jade’s very good at roping you into doing work. You think it's because she’s just so nice.

Kanaya’s sprawled out on your bed taking up the entire mattress. Completely curled into your blankets and quite possibly trapped. She works fast.

“Need some help,” you ask.

“No. Comfy.”

Well that ends that. You join her after grabbing one of your magic notebooks and jot down a few notes and reminders while sitting with her, Not too long and a page of scribbles later you hear Jade let herself in. You greet her and go but your notes back and as you return Jade passes you with Kanaya thrown over her should like some sort of sack. After she’s dropped off you ask if she’s fine. Which she replies yes, but wasn’t expecting it. Which was, understandable. You’ve kind of put her through a lot getting her here and bringing her back. You apologize again, just in case she was hurt.

It was cold on the shore, with the wind almost constantly blowing and bringing with it the cool ocean air. You turn to look at the sky as Jade helps Kanaya out. The sun was just low enough to give the sky a slight orange tint. As soon as you glance back though, you see Jade flinging Kanaya back into the ocean from up top some rocks on the shore. Her body being suspended in air for a long second before crashing down into the water. Immediately you intake a breath and prepare to yell at Jade, but before you could start Kanaya’s head pops up from the shimmering surface. Seemingly unfazed.

At least until she spoke, “please consider a fair warning before trying that again lest I may not be able to constrain myself from clawing into your shoulders from swift unknowing movement. I was alright with you throwing me over your shoulder but I can only take so much”

“Oops sorry Kanaya, I figured you’d wouldn't want me to waste time. Now that I mention it my reasoning wasn’t very sound since you aren’t some sort of fish flopping around on the beach,” she continues, “now I gotta go Bec is probably wondering where I am with dinner. See ya!! Sorry again Kanaya!!”

The both of you wave goodbye as Jade bounds up the hill with her horse dutifully following. You slip off your shoes and socks, and set them aside as you wade in the water a bit. The water was very chill and you instantly regret your decision. After having the water almost touch your knees you backtrack a bit for a dry rock to sit on. You hoist yourself on the rock Jade stood on as she launched you girlfriend into the water and left your feet still in to get used to the cold waves. While sitting, you notice Kanaya ducking into the water, and occasionally seeing her tail break the surface along with some bubbles. Presumable enjoying herself. A few moments later Kanaya’s head pops out from the water’s surface.

“Hello,” you say, “having fun?”

If she responded you didn’t catch it, but she does wade suspiciously close to you.

Before she could possibly pounce on you, you warn, “don’t try it.”

“You should join me.”

You look down at the almost uncomfortably cold water, “not now, maybe tomorrow. When the sun is out. And it's much warmer than this. Or after I learn how to swim.”

Kanaya leans her forehead against your leg and whispers, “so mean..”

Ah now your knees are cold too.

This rock was now starting to get uncomfortable to sit on. Time to stand. Carefully you attempt to maneuver to another less rocky spot. With Kanaya watching you almost full submerged in the water like some sort of classic horror movie monster.

Stumbling, but only for a second, caused you to slip once again today, landing back first into the water. The sun hadn’t been out for long enough to make the rocks any less slippery than they were now. Rain water combined with the ocean spray was deadly. Thankfully not hitting anything too hard on your way down, but you did bump your elbow on an underwater rock, which now also stings. You don’t thrash around in the water now that you can comprehend what happened, but you do attempt to cling use a rock to push yourself to the surface. Fortunately familiar webbed green arms wrap themselves around you and helped pull you to the surface. Reason could not stop you from clinging to her like, well, a drowning woman. Reason, thankfully, kicked in enough to recognize she was helping you. Probably since this is not the first time Kanaya has had to help you. Maybe investing in a book about swimming would be something to look for in the future.

“You alright,” Kanaya asks,” if you wanted to join me you didn’t have to be so coy about it.”

Now that Kanaya snaps you back to reality, you realize how cold you were now,” I’m going to freeze if I stay any longer.”

Kanaya helps you back to before the ocean floor suddenly drops on now you could stand, though still up to your waist in water. Since you were already soaked and now tired, you sit down in the wet sand. Waves parting around you as they lightly crash against your legs. Still cold, but now the still setting sun warms you a little. Kanaya comes up out of the water to join you. Curling her tail around when she sits.

“I think I’ve spent enough time outside. Quite the exciting day for me,” you say as you learn on her.

“Walking seems very difficult.”

“Very. My strengths are my grand wisdom and quick wit. Neither of which are physical tasks. I was meant to hoard myself away indoors.”

“That’s probably not good for you:

“Are you finally enclosing to me your darkest secret of being some for of mermaid doctor.”

“Yes,” she deadpans looking you straight in the eye,” I’m prescribing you with coming out and seeing me more. It’s illegal for you to not listen to me.”

“Hm. I’m legally obligated to agree with you.

Kanaya leaned in closer to rest her head on your shoulder. You return the gesture by placing you hear upon hers and wrapping an arm around her, Minutes pass, and you can peer over to see the sun setting lower and lower. Staying like this for a long while would be nice, but you’re sort of hitting your limit on how long you can deal with wet clothes and freezing feet. You could be over dramatic and complain how your body is slowly dying a horrible and cold death, but really you just want to nap. You catch yourself closing your eyes for a bit too dangerously long a few times and you sit with Kanaya. It’s almost night anyways, you should really be getting home too.

“Sorry Kanaya, I’m practically falling asleep here. I’m going to have to leave soon,” you yawn, “also I’m still freezing and need to shower again.”

She pulls in closer to hug you, “that’s fine, don’t get yourself sick.”

You reciprocate and accept the hug, even though no warmth came from it, it was still a kind gesture, a kind and slimy gesture. Then you slowly pull away to wrap your arms around her neck, and lean very close. A short pause follows, possibly from Kanaya waiting for you to make the last move to kiss her. Unbelievable, she’s making you do all the work,

“Kanaya, this is the part where you kiss me goodbye.”

“Oh, she looks up embarrassed and her ears tilt down, “oops.”

You continue waiting, for her to kiss you and to take the hint.

It takes her another moment, “oh.”

She finally leans in and pecks you on the nose. Ah, what an evil woman. You grab her shoulder to pull yourself up a bit to get an attempt to bite her lip. Just barely, you get a little nibble on the corner of her mouth before she learns back away from you, laughing.

Hoping to nudge her to kiss you for real you sit back and say, “ and after  _ all  _ this time I spend with you and take you into my home you deny me a kiss goodbye? I thought I was a witch.”

She doesn’t outright reply, but she puts a hand on you shoulder and pushes you back onto the ground. Technically speaking she is pinning you to the ground, but you’re not complaining, and even if you tried to sit up you know she wouldn’t hold you down.

“You know if you wanted a kiss you could just ask.”

“Absurd of you to think I would or could ever.”

“Of course how foolish of me,” she then caves and does in fact kiss you, which you’ll thank her for in return later, but for now you have to make it seem like you’ve won.

She moves to start kissing more of your face starting with your cheeks. Kanaya’s scales and hair start tickling you just enough to get a giggle out of you. She laughs with you and attempts to nuzzle in closer to you, making your giggling problem worse. Your laughter continues as the waves crash up besides the two of you, drenching you even more, as Kanaya continues kissing your cheek. Eventually you reach your limit of how grossly soaked you can get by the ocean to appease your girlfriend.

“Ok, sorry Kanaya. I’m going to freeze for real if I stay out here any longer,” you gently push her off.

She looked a little saddened by the realization of your leaving, but you take her head in your hands, “ I’ll be back tomorrow thoroughly not very cold and soaked and we can watch the sunrise.”

“Don’t sleep in again.” she smiles.

“Hey,” you drop your hands, “it’s hard waking up in the morning. Who wakes up then?”

“Me,” Kanaya hugs you.

“And that’s why I am too regardless of how dead I feel in the morning. How much it kills me to wake up before the sun.”

“Oh you’re being so melodramatic. Go to bed earlier dork.”

“A terrible idea,” you stand up,” now go swim or whatever mermaids do at night. Hey, do you all like, sleep in the water, or do you sleep in a cave or something? Do you have a cave room somewhere? Mermaid furniture? Do you just swim sleep? Is it possible to swim sleep?”

As you were stupidly thinking aloud about the possible ways mermaids can sleep Kanaya returned to the ocean and was already neck deep in the water,” Rose go home.”

“Fine, then tomorrow we discuss mermaid sleeping patterns and methods.”

“Yes, we can if you wake up early enough.”

“Alright, it’s a date.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok i was like sitting on the last couple paragraphs on this for months bc im an idiot also i wouldve liked to respond to all the messages on here that i never got to but i read them and im thankful someone liked this enough to comment on it. anyways i remembered a few days ago that i wrote and decided to finish this up and i hope its...readable i didnt read over it before i posted. I had like...a vague outline on this but i kinda missed some stuff (oops) but its ok hopefully i can write something new and do a better job. thanks for reading!!!!


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